


You're Eyes Are So Intimidating

by Nerdygirlygirl



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Jasper Jordan (mentioned) - Freeform, Minor Monty Green/Nathan Miller, Minor Octavia Blake/Lincoln, Minor Raven Reyes/Kyle Wick, Monty Green (mentioned) - Freeform, Mostly Fluff, My First Prompt, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-18
Updated: 2015-05-18
Packaged: 2018-03-31 04:13:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3963973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerdygirlygirl/pseuds/Nerdygirlygirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: A heavily tattooed Clarke who runs a tattoo parlor with Lincoln. She’s got the whole eyeliner/leather/motorbike thing going for her and Bellamy is terrified but kinda in love.</p><p>Title from Take Your Time by Sam Hunt</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're Eyes Are So Intimidating

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever prompt and was given to me in a comment by lesbianfucker (I don't know how to tag names so I hope you see this and know I did finally finish it as promised) so please go easy on me. I can handle constructive criticism and I had a lot of fun with this because it was so different for me. I tried sticking to everything as best I could (except the motorbike thing - sorry!). 
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated!
> 
> Below are some links for the tattoos. Some are mentioned and others are just ones I imagine someone having.
> 
> Bellamy (right bicep): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/338684834454611081/  
> Bellamy (left bicep): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/462111611739279203/  
> Clarke (right shoulder): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/131589620338253327/  
> Clarke (left hip): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/131589620339241342/  
> Clarke (right ribcage): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/131589620335405400/  
> Clarke (right forearm): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/131589620335204248/  
> Clarke & Raven (right heel - same place as picture): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/131589620334357055/  
> Clarke (left thigh): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/131589620333338199/  
> Jasper (shoulder): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/131589620336091892/  
> Lincoln: all the ones from the show (it's really hard to find male tattoos on Pinterest and I didn't feel like trying to go through Google)  
> Octavia (shoulder): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/131589620338263182/  
> Octavia (lower back near the left hip): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/131589620338209075/  
> Raven (back right shoulder) (I don't know if these are ravens, if they're not just imagine they are lol): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/131589620338252121/  
> Raven (same place as picture): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/131589620333336240/  
> Raven (forearm): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/131589620333336114/
> 
> Sorry for all the links (I went overboard). I put them here because when I read things with links I like to open all the links and then delete them as they are mentioned so I have a visual of them. They might be random and all over the place because they are. I took most of them from my own Pinterest board for things I've wanted for myself at various points.

“YOU DID WHAT?!” Bellamy bellows – literally bellows at his little sister.

Octavia sighs, “Relax, Bell. I just got a job. I told you I wanted to help out around here and you said that I could as long as the money went to things I needed and not the apartment. So I got one thinking if you didn’t have to give me money, you could keep more for yourself and I don’t know, do something fun for once. Besides go to work or the museum to look at the history exhibits.”

“I’m fine with you getting a job, O, but a TATTOO PARLOR? You couldn’t find something at like a coffee shop or a clothes store?”

“Not really. This place is half way between here and school and the owners are super cool and going to work around my class schedule. It’s not like I am going to be doing the tattoos myself. I’m just making appointments for clients and take their money and answering phones. It’s like a receptionist basically. And everything else between here and school is basically a bar and you’re not going to let me do that are you?”

Bellamy sighed. His sister had him right where she wanted him and she knew it. He only agreed to the job as long as it didn’t get in the way of her school and was close to home. Outside of the college aspect of their neighborhood, the rest of the town was not the kind of area he wanted his 20-year-old sister working in and he would know. He was a detective for the town and spent more time dealing with drug busts and gang assaults outside the 15 blocks the school and other school facilities were located on.

“How did you even get this job, O?”

“Jasper works there some nights, as a favor to one of the owners. Their previous girl quit because she graduated and they needed someone so Jasper got me in.”

“Girl? Is this just a bunch of creepy guys who hire young girls for them to leer at?”

“God, Bell! No! They’re really cool and young. They both graduated art school and found they really enjoyed doing tattoos so they opened a place together. They’re names are Lincoln and Clarke.”

“Fine. I’m running a background check on this place and I’ll walk you home when you get out late.”

“Big brother, I get you worry about me, but I’m good and they’re good people. So just relax.”

* * *

_**i.** _

About a week after his little sister started working at TonDC, he got a text from her that said she was going to be later than usual because Jasper was sick and Lincoln had a late client coming in so she had to stay at least until the guy showed up. Or Clarke got back. 

Bellamy had done a background check on the place and there was no suspicion of criminal activity and he couldn’t’ get much on the owners other than their names – Lincoln Trent and Clarke Griffin.

It made him feel better that there was so little information on the two guys, but he still didn’t like his sister hanging out there all hours of the night – even if Jasper vouched for them.

Bellamy decided to head over when he got off his late shift at the bar he worked at when he had free time. He walked in to TonDC and found Octavia sitting at a stool behind the counter off to the right side and sitting right next to her on another stool with his feet propped on the counter was a massive man with tattoos on his arms and even one on his neck.

“Hey, man. We’re actually closed for the night. You can come back tomorrow,” the very large man said.

Bellamy simply raised his eyebrows at his sister.

“Lincoln, this is my very over protective big brother, Bellamy. Bell, this is Lincoln. He owns the place.”

“Oh, man. Nice to meet you,” Lincoln took his feet down and leaned forward to shake Bellamy’s hand. It was a good handshake and Bellamy was about to ask why they were closed if Octavia said she had to stay when the door flew open and two women came storming in.

The first was a petite blonde wearing a tight black leather dress, carrying sky high black heels, and eyeliner that made her look like she was going to war. He could see poking out from under the right shoulder of the one-strapped dress the markings of a tattoo and some smaller stuff on her forearms. The other was a tall brunette Latina with her straight hair in a sky-high ponytail and was wearing an equally revealing dress, but with Converse sneakers.

“Never again, Raven. Never again will I go to a gay bar with you. Never. Again. Do you understand me?” The blonde stormed in and almost ran into Bellamy.

“Sorry,” he muttered trying to step out of her way, but she wasn’t paying attention.

“Come on, Clarke. It’s been 5 years since Finn and Lexa was two years after that. You need to move on?” The tall brunette moved around Bellamy as if he wasn’t even there.

“That’s not fair. Lexa and I were together for a year. And what about you, Raven? It’s been five years since Finn? And… Wait, that’s it!” Clarke, the blonde, spins around in the middle of the store and drops her heels to place her hands on her hips.

“You know the Finn thing is different for me and you. You were with him for 3 months. I was with him for 10 years!”

“It doesn’t count when you were 11 when you met. That doesn’t mean you dated!”

“I take it the girls night out didn’t go well?” Lincoln asks quietly from behind the counter with a smile on his face.

Clarke throws him a glare, “No. She dragged me to that stupid bar. Where she’s not going to meet anyone, only to force me to.”

Lincoln looks at Raven, “How many numbers did she get?”

“Well, about five different girls bought her drinks and one guy, don’t ask why he was there, but she didn’t take any numbers. I, on the other hand, got three!” Raven flashes some bar napkins at Lincoln who shakes his head.

Bellamy grins at the exchange until he feels the blonde glaring at him.

“Who the hell are you?”

Bellamy’s grin falls right off his face and he just stares at her. Her blue eyes are like ice daggers being thrown at him. He’s never really been terrified of a girl before, but this girl looks like she could take him – and not like just take him down, but chew him alive and then spit him out.

“Clarke,” Octavia calls her attention from the counter. “This is my brother, Bellamy Blake.”

“What are you still doing here? I thought you had to leave early. Where the hell is Jasper?” Clarke barely acknowledges Octavia’s introduction.

“He said he was sick,” Lincoln answered.

“Or high,” Raven muttered and Bellamy glanced at Octavia and narrowed his eyes. She shouldn’t be hanging out with potheads, no matter how innocent Jasper Jordan was.

“This is the third time this week that he’s called out sick. I swear to god, if he shows up here one more time high this month, I’m firing him!” Clarke grabs her heels and storms towards the back of the room.

“Where are you going, Clarke?!” Raven yells after her.

“To take this stupid dress off!” Clarke yells from the back room.

“You should probably go, Octavia,” Lincoln says from the counter. “My client will be here soon.”

Octavia nodded her head and said goodbye to Lincoln and Raven and Bellamy nodded a goodbye to them while she gathered her things and left together.

As soon as they were half way down the block, Octavia started.

“I’ve never seen Clarke that mad before. She’s like the sweetest person ever.”

“Right,” Bellamy drawled. “I have never been so terrified of a small woman before than I was in those five minutes.”

“You? Terrified? That’s an over exaggeration if I ever heard one.”

“You just said she was the sweetest person ever. That’s the most over exaggeration I’ve ever heard.”

Octavia laughs and bumps her shoulder into his arm.

* * *

_**ii.** _

It was another three weeks before Bellamy ever had to go back to TonDC. This time he was working with Miller, his partner, when Octavia called and said she left her keys at home and if he could drop his off before her shift ended. 

As they parked their unmarked car around the corner and made their way into TonDC, Bellamy warned Miller that the people who ran the place were certifiable. Well he was starting to like the guy Lincoln. He had walked Octavia home a few nights when Bellamy was working late. He didn’t exactly trust a guy to be alone with his sister, but the guy was like a mountain so Bellamy knew she would be safe from other people at least.

When the two walked in, Bellamy saw his sister sitting at the counter again and this time a blonde girl who looked closer in age to his sister than him without make up wearing jeans covered in paint splatters and a tank top was sitting next to her. The blonde had a tattoo on her shoulder that looked like some kind of flower, but it wasn’t until she lifted her arms to tell a story that he realized who she was.

The two women were laughing about something when Octavia noticed them.

“Bell! MILLER!” Octavia jumped off her stool and came around to hug his partner.

“I see. He gets all the hugs and I just drop everything to bring you my keys and I get ignored.”

“Shut it, Bell. I see you all the time. I haven’t seen Miller in _forever_.”

“It hasn’t been forever,” Bellamy grumbles as Octavia just shrugs and turns back to Miller.

“When are you coming over for dinner? I never see you anymore.”

“Well, you went and grew up and got a job. It’s not my fault you’re so busy now,” Miller chuckles and smirks at Octavia like the little sister he sees her as. Octavia always complained that it was bad enough her overprotective big brother grew up to be a cop, but his best friend who was like another big brother to her became a cop too.

The blonde woman sitting at the counter shuffled some papers around and Octavia turned to look at her.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry. Clarke this is my brother’s partner, Nathan Miller. But we just call him Miller,” Octavia says to the woman who looks up from the paper she was writing on.

“Oh,” Clarke smiles at Miller and Bellamy decides to look away because that smile... “Nice to meet you, I’ve heard a lot about you. Both of you actually, you must be Bellamy, the big brother.” Clarke lets go of Miller’s hand and sticks her hand out to Bellamy.

“Funny, princess,” Bellamy smirks at her and a frown crosses her face.

“I’m sorry. Did you just call me ‘princess’?”

“Clarke? You met Bellamy before, remember?” Octavia says quietly.

“No, I haven’t I would have remembered meeting your brother. You talk about him all the time,” Clarke looks at Octavia.

“You did. It was late at night a few weeks ago. It’s okay if you don’t remember,” Octavia rushes.

“Oh, shit. It wasn’t the night Raven made me go out, was it?”

“Yup,” Bellamy pops the ‘p’.

“I’m so sorry. I don’t remember much from that night – I wasn’t drunk – well not blackout drunk. Raven likes to call it rage-amnesia. I had a fight with – you know what it doesn’t matter. I’m really sorry. Can we try it again?” Now Bellamy has to watch her smile again, but it’s shyer and smaller than the one she gave Miller.

“Yeah, sure, princess,” Bellamy sticks his hand out and she scoffs, but shakes it.

“Don’t call me that.”

“Trust me, princess. That’s the nicest thing I’ve called you since that night.”

“Bellamy!” Octavia swats his arm, but Clarke throws her head back laughing and Bellamy can’t help the grin that crosses his face.

“I don’t doubt it, but don’t ever repeat them. I’ll concede ‘princess’.”

Bellamy sends her one of his most charming smirks, “Deal, princess.”

All of a sudden the radio in Miller’s hand squawks and dispatch is calling their unit number asking for them to report to a domestic disturbance a few blocks from where they are.

“Gotta go, O,” Bellamy hands her the key and gives her a hug placing a kiss on her head.

“Be safe, Bell. Miller, don’t let him do anything stupid,” Octavia lets go of him and hugs Miller.

“I always try, O, but you know how stubborn he is,” Miller waves goodbye to Clarke and turns towards the door.

“Good night, officers,” Clarke calls out with a grin and makes eye contact with him.

“That’s detectives to you, princess,” Bellamy can hear her laugh as he leaves and a grin spreads across his face again.

“Well, if that’s certifiable, I don’t want to know what your opinion of a nice girl is,” Miller laughs as he slides into the passenger side of their car.

“Shut it, Miller.”

* * *

**_iii._ **

Its two weeks later that he runs into Clarke Griffin again. 

He’s working another shift at Grounders for Murphy. The bar is packed, typical for a Saturday night around 10. He just finished grabbing some beers for these two Frat asshole types when the bar stools next to them fill up. He looks up to ask what they want and is shocked to see Clarke and Raven, both wearing jeans. Raven is in a red halter-top tank top and Clarke is wearing a black tank top that has a lace cut out on the side and disappears around to the back. He can see the rose tattoo on her shoulder better now and notices some ink on her ribcage under the lace, but can’t make out what it is.

“So this is why Octavia is always telling us to try out Grounders?” Clarke grins.

“Don’t think you’re going to get free drinks or something, princess,” Bellamy places his hands on the bar to lean closer – just so he can hear her over the band playing.

“You think we need you to give us free drinks?” Raven laughs. “We’re two hot chicks in a bar on a Saturday night. We get free drinks, don’t worry.”

“I don’t know what you’re going to do, Raven. This isn’t a gay bar.”

“Ha. Ha. Very funny,” Raven rolls her eyes. “I only dragged this one because she refused to go home with any of the people she meets at other bars.”

“So neither one of you is…” Bellamy trails off not wanting to ask.

“I’m straight,” Raven tilts her head towards Clarke. “She’s bi. Hence the exes named Finn and Lexa.”

“I wasn’t sure. Finn could have been a girl’s name. How many female Clarkes do you know?” Bellamy crosses his arm across his chest.

“Hey. What kind of a name is Bellamy?” Clarke raises an eyebrow at him.

“Alright, alright. What can I get for you two?”

“Two rum and cokes,” Clarke smiles and hands over a card. “You can start a tab too.”

“Gotcha,” Bellamy takes the card and begins making their drinks.

“Aren’t you a cop?” Raven asks once they both take a sip of their drinks. “That’s what O said.”

“Detective,” Clarke corrects her and shoots him a grin while Raven rolls her eyes.

“Yeah, I am. But a cop’s salary only goes so far. O still has books and tuition that needs to be paid. So my friend who runs this place calls me in every now and then to pick up a few shifts.”

“You pay for your sister’s school?” Raven looks slightly shocked.

“Yeah. My mom died just after I turned 18 and my dad left a few years before Octavia was born and we don’t know anything about her dad since he took off long before she was born. So it’s just been the two of us for the last few years.”

“Wow. That’s kind of awesome of you,” Raven nods her head in approval.

“Octavia and her brother have a very close relationship,” Clarke turns to Raven. “They can apparently have conversations without even speaking. Or so I’ve been told.” Clarke turns to him. “She talks about you all the time.”

“Good things, I hope?”

“Well, it depends on what you mean by good?” Clarke smirks at him.

“Now you’ve got me nervous.”

“That’s the point, Blake,” Clarke’s smirk turns into an amused smile and he really shouldn’t be able to differentiate all of her different smiles – especially since this is only his third time meeting this woman.

“Reyes?” Wick, the other bartender is back from cleaning up a mess in the back room, and grinning at Raven like a madman.

“Ugh,” Raven drops her head onto her arms on the bar.

Clarke is grinning looking between the two before glancing to Bellamy, “I’m sorry. Who are you and how do you know my best friend?”

Wick smiles at Clarke, “Kyle Wick. Reyes and I went to high school together. The only girl who took Shop senior year. She made her boyfriend take Home Ec because, and I quote, why should men and women take gender stereotypical classes in high school. This isn’t the 1950s.”

Wick turns his grin on Raven and leans one hip against the bar, “So how is Mr. Wonderful. You two get married yet? I’m sure those Home Ec classes paid off.”

Bellamy glances to Clarke who looks a little paler than normal.

“Oh yeah, they did. He became the master of subterfuge and deception. How do you think I met this one?” Raven nods her head towards Clarke who now has a small grin on her face. “I decided to surprise him and visit him at school only to find out he was dating someone else. Less than three weeks after he proposed to me.”

“Oh shit,” Wick stands up straight and looks shocked and confused and at a lost for words – which is totally not Wick. “I – I’m sorry. I – I didn’t mean… Yeah. Shit.” Wick rubs the little bit of stubble on his chin.

“It’s alright,” Raven takes pity on him and laughs. “It was five years ago. And I may have lost a doucebag of a fiancé, but I gained an awesome best friend. So I think I won in the divorce.” Raven shrugs her shoulders and takes a sip of her drink.

“So you went to high school with Raven?” Clarke asks Wick.

“Ye – Yeah,” Wick clears his throat and turns to look at Clarke.

“Awesome. So you have tons of embarrassing stories about her that you can tell me? Because I need to hear them.”

“What? Not a fat chance in hell, Griffin,” Raven shakes her head. “You say anything and I will break a bone in your body for every word.” Raven points to Wick.

“Come on. You know all of my embarrassing stories. Why can’t I hear yours?”

“I don’t know any of yours,” Raven says matter of factly while taking another sip of her drink.

“I know you do because you and Lincoln spend way too much time together giggling like school girls whenever I’m not around. And he’s like the only living person that I’ve known since high school.”

“You’ve known Lincoln since high school?” Bellamy leans forward towards her. He’s not blind. He’s seen the way Lincoln looks at his sister and the way Octavia talks about him. He knows something more is going on there and has been for a few weeks now.

“Yeah. He was a Junior when I was a Freshman and we met in an art class. Then he went to school and we stayed in touch after he graduated. He’s the once that convinced me to get my degree in art rather than medicine like my mom wanted.”

“Bitch,” Raven mutters under her breath and Clarke continues her story without acknowledging Raven’s comment.

“When I was a sophomore in college, I met Raven and Lincoln sort of adopted her too,” Clarke elbows Raven who just rolls her eyes.

“Adopted how?” Wick asks.

“He thinks of us as the little sisters he’s always wanted, but says he never wanted. He’s the one we called at two in the morning when we’re too drunk to get home. I stayed with him after the whole Finn debacle cause I was afraid this one wanted to beat me up,” Clarke pokes Raven who sticks her tongue out at her. “And when we became friends, after Raven transferred here, he’s the one who threatened Finn to stay away from us. You’ve seen him,” Clarke looks to Bellamy. “He’s a giant. Finn was terrified of him.”

“It was great,” Raven’s smile turns mischievous. “I’ve never seen him cowering before. It was just awesome.”

“So is that what’s going on between my sister and Lincoln? He’s just looking out for her like a little sister?” Bellamy asks Clarke, but Raven answers.

“Oh, hell no. He’s very much smitten with your little sister. It’s adorable. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him like someone before.”

“Raven,” Clarke mutters through her teeth.

“What – oh. Sorry, Big Blake,” Raven looks around. “Yup, I know that person over there. I’m gonna go say hi. Wick you know them too, right?” And then she’s gone and dragging Wick to the other side of the bar.

Bellamy turns his glare on Clarke, “What?”

“Listen, Lincoln is like a big teddy bear. He likes your sister, but he wasn’t going to do anything about it. He’s aware of the seven year age difference and wasn’t going to act on it, but your sister – she can be very determined when she see something she wants. He didn’t do anything that she didn’t initiate.”

“So he just hired her because he liked her?” Bellamy asked trying to think of how this would crush Octavia and if he could get her a job waitressing at Grounders during the day or during his shifts.

“No. I hired Octavia. Lincoln wasn’t even there. He’s only a part owner. I own a two-third majority of TonDC. He owns the other third so I make the majority of decisions.”

“Oh,” Bellamy says dumbly.

“He didn’t meet her until her first shift working there. And Jasper worked with her during the first week. In fact, I think the first time they were actually alone together was the day Raven took me out to that bar and you came to pick Octavia up.”

“Don’t you have some sort of rule about co-workers dating or something?”

“No. It would be sort of hypocritical of me. My ex, Lexa, worked there for a few months doing tattoos. She quit to work with an old friend a few months after we started dating.”

“And you kept dating her after she left for the competition?”

“Yeah,” Clarke rolls her eyes at him. “It was her childhood best friend, Costia. She lost one of her artists tragically and Lexa went to help out.”

“So why did you two break up?”

“Because it turns out that Costia and Lexa had dated in high school and those feelings made a very sudden reappearance. At least, that’s what she said,” Clarke finished her drink and Bellamy quickly made her another.

“I’m sorry. It’s none of my business.”

“It’s alright. It was two years ago,” Clarke pauses and takes a sip of her drink. “Listen, Lincoln is like my big brother. He’s become my family in the last ten years – him and Raven – and I’m not going to say its the same thing as you and Octavia, but its pretty close and it’s clear he really likes Octavia, so I’m not going to stop anything, but I’m not going to let you get in the way of it. Octavia’s a big girl and I swear on my father’s grave, that he would never hurt her. I wouldn’t let him.”

Bellamy leans close to her, “She’s my baby sister and Lincoln is two years older than me. You think I’m just going to sit back and let him date her or something worse.”

Clarke leans even closer to him, “That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying do your normal big brother routine, but don’t make her quit her job or never see him again because one, we both know Octavia is going to do the exact opposite of what you say and two, Lincoln is a good guy and I want to see him happy. And he likes your sister. So. Let. It. Go.”

Bellamy is about to argue with her when he catches sight of some people wanting refills on their drinks, “This isn’t over, princess.”

He spends the next hour working and unable to continue the conversation with Clarke. When he finally gets a break, he sees both her and Raven have left and Wick’s grinning from ear to ear. When they are closing up he finds out Clarke slipped Wick Raven’s number and told him to call her friend. Apparently, she’s just a matchmaker extraordinaire.

That night when he gets home, he decides to have a serious conversation with Octavia about Lincoln and as soon as he asks, she gets defensive. He should have realized she would, so he calmly tells her he just wants to know about him.

Octavia’s face is suspicious, but then she starts talking a mile a minute telling him everything about Lincoln. How he never talked to her alone until she asked him why, how she caught him drawing her and then he started leaving little sketches around for her (and yeah, Bellamy gets to see them all and has to admit Lincoln is pretty talented), but mostly she talks about how he rarely spoke around her because he was shy and trying to keep his distance because of the age gap, but has been so sweet and he technically didn’t ask her out, she asked him.

The only think Bellamy really likes about the guy (besides for the fact that he sort of makes his sister really happy) is that he stands near her whenever a sketchy client comes in, whether it’s a gang member looking for a gang tattoo (Lincoln and Clarke turn them away because they don’t want to get involved – which Bellamy is really, really happy about) or some drunk guys, who get a little too close to her.

So yeah, maybe Clarke was right and Bellamy needs to step back because even if he tells Octavia to never see him again (everyone knows that will just send her running to Lincoln), the guy is actually pretty good for Octavia (despite the age gap) because she spends more nights in doing homework when she’s not working and the guys who are her age are more likely to treat her wrong. So Bellamy decides to suck it up and have a little talk with Lincoln the next time he gets a chance to drop by TonDC. (He does a few days later when Clarke isn’t around and Lincoln is surprisingly cool with the whole big brother talk and even says he’s had to have the talk a few times so he understands Bellamy’s need to deliver it. Then the two start talking tattoos and everything just spirals from there. And unfortunately, Lincoln is good for Octavia so Bellamy has to suck it up.)

* * *

_**iv.** _

The next time he meets Clarke Griffin, he’s in the hospital. Just a perk of the job. Miller and him were responding to an armed robbery, although they didn’t know about the guns until they got there. Somehow they were able to disarm all of the robbers, but while Bellamy was trying to arrest one of them, another came out of hiding and jumped him. He ended up with three fractured ribs, a concussion, and a lot of bruises. Miller and Bellamy had a deal since their first day on the job. They didn’t call the other’s family until the worst was over. So Miller had waited to call Octavia until he had gone through all the x-rays and other procedures. By the time Octavia showed up, he was resting comfortably.

“Bellamy?” Octavia came running into his hospital room where they were keeping him for observation.

“Hey, O,” Bellamy grins at her and opens his arms for her hug and only winces once when she squeezes too tight.

“Are you okay?” Octavia whispers quietly.

“Yeah, just a few bruises. I’ll be good as new in a few days.”

“It says you have three fractured ribs and a concussion. That’s a little more than a few bruises,” Clarke is standing at the end of his bed reading the chart hanging on the wall next to the dry erase board with his doctor’s name and other information.

“Well, hello to you too, princess,” Bellamy shoots her a glare.

“Be nice to her,” Octavia scolds him. “She grew up in hospitals so she knows what’s she doing. That’s why I asked her to come because I knew you’d lie to me and Clarke would tell me the truth.”

“You grew up in hospitals?” Bellamy shoots a questioning look at her, but Octavia answers again.

“Her mom is some big wig doctor or something. So she knows what she’s talking about.”

“Ah, the mother who wanted you to go into medicine instead of art,” Bellamy shakes his head.

“Yeah, so,” Clarke crosses her arms over the tank top and cardigan she’s wearing with skinny jeans and boots.

“Whatever, princess.”

Octavia rolls her eyes and starts adjusting his pillows and asking if he wants another blanket and just rushing back and forth around his bed while Clarke takes one of the seats next to the bed and avoiding Octavia’s path.

“O. O, I’m fine. Just relax, okay?” Bellamy grabs her hands and stops her from fixing the pillows for the third time. “Just sit here and talk to me, okay? Where’s Lincoln at?”

“He’s out of town for a family reunion,” Octavia sniffs and takes the other seat before grabbing one of his hands.

“That’s good. Does he have a big family?”

Octavia rolls her eyes at him, “I know what you’re doing and it’s not going to work. I can be worried about my big brother, can’t I?’

“Of course, but I’m okay. See? They’ve got me on meds and I’ll be out of here in a few days.”

“Why did Miller wait to call me? He said it happened early this morning like three in the morning, but he didn’t call me until nine.”

“I told him to wait. They were running tests and everything and there was no reason to wake you up in the middle of the night for you to panic. Once we knew what was wrong, then he called you.”

“That’s not how this works, Bell. You call me as soon as something happens. I don’t care what time of day it is or if you only have a paper cut. What if it was more serious and I wasn’t here – in time?” Octavia’s voice breaks on the last word and tears start silently streaming down her face.

“O, I’m sorry. I didn’t think of it like that. I promise, next time, I’ll make Miller call you as soon as we get to the hospital.”

“Next time?” Octavia shoots out of her chair and balls her hands into fists. “Bellamy Blake you better not ever let this happened again or else I will put you back in this hospital.”

“Hey, Octavia? Why don’t you go call Lincoln and tell him how Bellamy is doing? He’s probably worried and trying to get a flight back home,” Clarke interrupts Octavia and sends the younger girl a smile.

“Yeah, okay,” Octavia leans forward and presses a kiss onto Bellamy’s temple. “Behave and listen to the doctors. I’ll be right back.” Octavia leaves already dialing Lincoln on her phone.

“Thanks,” Bellamy mutters and drops his head back onto the pillow and closes his eyes.

“I didn’t do it for you. She’s been a mess since Miller called.”

“I thought she had class today. Why was she with you?”

“Her class got cancelled so we were going to breakfast to plan Lincoln’s surprise party.”

Bellamy mumbles something in response and is about to drift back off to sleep when he hears a knock on the door and the doctor’s voice.

“Detective Blake, am I interrupting?”

Bellamy looks up and sees the doctor who has been on his case since this morning, “No. Not at all.” He offers her a small smile and then points to Clarke. “This is a friend, Clarke Griffin. This is the doc that’s been giving me pain meds.” He turns to look at Clarke who is looking down at her hands, which are folded in her lap. She looks worried and a little bit nervous.

“Detective, if you could just follow the light.” Bellamy turns back to her flashlight while she checks the progress of his concussion – which she’s been doing every hour or so. When she finished, Bellamy glances down at the nametag on her white coat. With everything going on earlier, he never remembered her name, but now he sees Dr. Abby Griffin written out with a smiling picture underneath it.

“Oh,” Bellamy says without thinking and glances back to Clarke, who is now picking at some invisible dirt on her jeans.

“Everything seems to be healing fine, Detective Blake. You should be able to get out of here either today or tomorrow,” Dr. Griffin makes a few notes on the tablet in her hands before offering a small smile and turning and leaving.

“So,” Bellamy starts as soon as Dr. Griffin has left the room. “That’s the big wig mother who’s a doctor?” Bellamy doesn’t look at Clarke, but continues watching the door.

“You could say that,” Clarke mutters from her chair next to his bed.

“You don’t have to tell me what happened, but if you want to talk,” Bellamy turns to look at her and waits until she meets his eyes. “I’m a good listener.”

Clarke rolls her eyes and smiles, “I think I know that. Why else would you use Lincoln as a way to distract your sister?” Clarke raises one eyebrow at him and Bellamy scoffs.

“Yeah, okay. Maybe you were right,” Bellamy mumbles.

“I’m sorry. Do you want to repeat that?” Clarke leans closer to the bed and Bellamy just glares at her.

“Whatever, princess,” but he can’t keep the smiling crossing his face and purposely avoids looking at her because he knows she’s smiling at him too.

Octavia comes back a few minutes later and spends about an hour with him before she has to leave for a later class – only after Clarke promises to stay until Octavia gets back.

The two of them spend the next few hours playing card games and watching bad daytime TV. After he wakes up from a short medicine induced nap, he finds Clarke sitting in the same chair, but her feet propped up on his bed with her knees bent and a sketchbook laying over them.

Bellamy jostles on of her feet so she’ll look at him, “What are you drawing?”

“Something for Octavia,” she flips the book around to see him sleeping in the bed. It’s only done in pencil and she somehow got all of the curls and freckles on his face.

“Wow. That’s really good, princess,” Bellamy reaches out for it silently asking her permission. She nods and hands him the sketchbook.

“Thanks. I’m pretty impressed with it too. I somehow made you actually attractive,” Clarke smirks and Bellamy can’t help but laugh – except then he’s wincing because his ribs are still so sore.

Clarke winces with him and then sends him an apologetic grin, but Bellamy just shakes it off and starts flipping through some of the other sketches. He sees one of Octavia and Lincoln sitting behind the counter laughing and one of Raven bent over and concentrating as she tattoos someone. Another one is a small Clarke riding on a man’s shoulders, she’s got pigtails in and eating cotton candy with the biggest smile on her face.

“This your dad?” Bellamy shows her the sketch.

“Yeah. I drew that from a picture I had of the two of us. I was about five in that. He died when I was in college.”

“Did Octavia ever tell you about our mom?”

“Yeah. We spend a lot of time talking about them. It’s nice. Your mom sounds incredible from what she says.”

“Yeah, she was,” Bellamy glances at Clarke who is looking at her knees again. “Hey, remember, good listener.”

Clarke looks at him and laughs shaking her head, “Yeah. I remember. Same goes for you too.”

Bellamy smiles back at her and they’re just sitting there smiling at each other like a bunch of fools until they hear someone clear their throat from the doorway.

Bellamy pulls his eyes away from Clarke and has to blink a few times before turning towards the visitor.

“Dr. Griffin?” Bellamy clears his throat and decides not to glance at Clarke while her mom is in the room.

“Detective Blake, I’m just hear to run a few more tests and then we should be able to release you.”

“Sounds good,” Bellamy sits up straighter in the bed and lets her run the few physical tests.

While Dr. Griffin is checking the state of his ribs, she glances down at Clarke’s sketchbook sitting in his lap and Bellamy can hear the small gasp before she clears her throat and declares he’s good to go home.

This time before she leaves, her eyes land on Clarke for a few seconds longer than normal, but Clarke is grinning at him and congratulating him on getting sprung early – oblivious to her mother.

“I’ll call O and she can meet us at your place when she gets out of class,” Clarke stands up and begins dialing her phone while walking out of the room.

“How long have you two been together?” Dr. Griffin – Abby, according to her nametag – asks quietly.

“No offense, Dr. Griffin. You saved my life pretty much, but if you want to know anything about your daughter, you should ask her yourself.”

Abby looks up and meets his eyes, “Just take care of her, will you?”

“You obviously don’t know your daughter if you think she needs anyone to take care of her,” Bellamy levels a pointed look at her as Clarke walks back into the room.

“Miller’s going to be here soon. He’ll help get you home because I know you’ll try and be a baby about everything,” Clarke announces.

“Well, good luck, Detective Blake,” Dr. Griffin squeezes his hand once and turns to leave, but stops when she sees Clarke. “Clarke, you look well.”

“Thank you,” Clarke’s voice is steady, but her face is confused when she looks at her mother. “You too.”

Abby nods her head once and then leaves the room.

Clarke watches her before turning to look at Bellamy, “That was weird. What were you two talking about?”

“Nothing,” Bellamy shrugs and swings his legs over the edge of the bed, ready to go home. Once he’s on his feet, he sways slightly and Clarke is by his side steadying him.

“You gotta take it easy,” Clarke places a hand on his back and his stomach holding him in place while he places a hand on her shoulder.

“Just get me to the bathroom, princess. I’m ready to put real clothes on and not these stupid dressing gowns.”

“Oh, wow. You don’t have anything on underneath this,” Clarke says from behind him while he tries to close the open back gown.

“Just stop, okay, Griffin?”

“Why it’s not a bad view?” He can hear the grin in Clarke’s voice, but she grabs the two ends and placed them in his waiting hand and he grumbles a thank you while trying to ignore the blush in his cheeks.

“I’ll just stay out here. Put pants on and then I’ll help you with a shirt or something. That’s going to hurt worse with your ribs.”

Bellamy rolled his eyes while trying to close the door, “I’ll be fine, princess. I’ve got this handled.”

“No, you don’t. If you don’t want me to help, I can get a nurse to help you?” Clarke raised an eyebrow, but Bellamy shook his head no. “Alright, just let me know when you need help.”

“Right. Got it,” Bellamy closed the door and slowly got dressed. Clarke was right putting sweatpants on wasn’t that hard, but bending to pull them up hurt like a bitch. As soon as he tried to lift his arms over his head to slip his shirt on he gasped at the pain and dropped the shirt trying to catch his breath.

“Bell? You okay?” Clarke called through the door and Bellamy’s head shoots up to glance at the door. _Did she just call me Bell?_

“Hey. What’s going on?” Bellamy can hear Miller’s voice through the door too.

“He tried putting his shirt on by himself with three fractured ribs and a concussion because he’s a stubborn ass,” Clarke responds.

“That sounds about right,” Miller must be nodding along.

“Miller, do you have zip up hoodie or something? That might be better for him.”

“Yeah, do that,” Bellamy says back through the door and his voice is tight with pain still.

“Jesus, you are stubborn, Blake,” Miller taps the door before telling Clarke he’s got one in his car.

“Alright, you can come out Bellamy. No one here is going to make fun of you,” Clarke’s voice has a teasing lift to it that contradicts her words, but he knows he can’t hide in the bathroom forever.

“Like I was worried about that, princess,” he opens the door and slowly walks back to the bed ignoring Clarke’s gasp. He took a look at himself in the bathroom mirror and saw all the bruises and stitches covering his chest. It’s not pretty to say the least.

“Oh my god, Bell,” Clarke takes a deep breath and follows him. _She did it again_. “That’s – I’ve never seen anything – Are you sure you want to leave today?”

“I’ll be fine, princess. I just want to go home,” Bellamy slowly lowers himself onto the bed and grunts at the movement.

“You can’t let Octavia see that. She’ll never be okay with you going back to work.”

“You think I don’t know that,” Bellamy snaps at her and then takes a deep breath. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. It’s not my business to get involved in your and Octavia’s relationship.”

“No, you have every right to. You’re her friend and you’re looking out for her. I appreciate it,” Bellamy offers her a small smile.

“I’m you’re friend too,” Clarke smiles back at him.

“Alright, I got this hoodie some guy left in my car a few weeks ago – Holy shit, Bellamy. That’s – Are you sure you want to leave today?” Miller stops at the doorway.

“Yes. If I stay any longer, Octavia is going to freak out and I don’t want her to worry more than she has to.”

“Okay. Um – Here,” Miller hands the hoodie to Clarke and motions for her to help him.

Clarke rolls her eyes at Miller and unfolds the hoodie and looks at it weirdly, “How do you know Monty?”

“Wh-What?” Miller stutters.

“This is Monty Green’s favorite hoodie. I know because he wears it like every weekend when he brings Jasper food at the shop. Mostly because he’s hungover. Monty makes the moonshine and Jasper tests it. And I shouldn’t have said that in a room with two cops,” Clarke raises an eyebrow at Miller, who shrugs.

“Monty?” Bellamy says with a grin. “That’s that guy you hooked up with a few weeks ago and you’ve been texting. He’s Octavia’s friend?”

“I didn’t know it at the time,” Miller crosses his arms and looks everywhere, but the two of them. “And he’s two years older than Octavia. So it’s different.”

Clarke is smiling so wide, “So you’re the mystery guy. Raven is going to be so pissed that I met you first.”

“Whatever. Cover up your boyfriend’s chest before his sister gets back.”

Clarke stutters at the same time Bellamy does.

“My what?” “Her what?”

“Oh, you didn’t’ know? Octavia has been trying to set you two up since you guys met,” Miller is smirking at them now.

“I had an idea,” Clarke says after a moment of silence before turning around to help him put the hoodie on, but she doesn’t meet his eyes.

“You had an idea?” Bellamy tries to keep the wince from crossing his face as he slips his arms into it.

“Well, she kept telling me to go to the bar you work at. I didn’t know you worked there, but the night Raven and I ended up there, we were trying to figure out what to do and Octavia kept saying we should go to Grounders because it was a really cool place. It didn’t make sense because she wasn’t 21 so it’s not like she could go there. So we should have realized something was up. I figured it out when we saw you there,” Clarke shrugs as he zips up the hoodie slowly.

“And then today, we were suppose to meet for breakfast, but she called before either of us left to meet and said you were here and asked me to go with her. She explained it was because my mom is a doctor and I was pre-med for awhile,” Clarke glances at the door before turning back to Miller. “But if you’re saying that, then it just makes more sense.”

“And you didn’t think to say anything to me?” Bellamy asks.

“I wasn’t completely sure and didn’t want to look like an ass if I was wrong,” Clarke narrows her eyes at him. “Come on, you’re telling me you didn’t notice anything?”

Bellamy thinks back on all the conversations he’s had with his sister since she started working at TonDC. Octavia mentioned very little about Lincoln or Raven, but Clarke was mentioned in almost every story. If the story revolved around another and not Clarke, they were barely mentioned by name, but even if Clarke was an insignificant part of the story her name was mentioned and her part was exaggerated. Yeah, his sister was trying something.

Bellamy ran a hand down his face and scratched the stubble forming on his chin, “Yeah, she’s up to something.”

“Wow, you two are thick,” Miller laughed while stuffing his hands into his pockets.

“Detective Blake, are you ready to get sprung from here?” Roma, one of the nurse who has been checking up on him since he arrived comes in carrying his discharge papers. She stops and glances around the room, her eyes lingering on Clarke longer than necessary.

“Here, I can take those,” Clarke leans forward to grab the papers from Roma.

“Actually, Detective Blake needs to sign them first,” Roma pulls them away from Clarke. Clarke’s eyes widen slightly and she nods her head before moving away from Bellamy and towards Miller, who shrugs at her questioning look.

“Detective Blake, if you could just sign here, then your sister and your partner can take you home?”

Bellamy can hear Clarke and Miller turning a laugh into a cough as he signs his discharge papers and decides to play a little game too.

“Thanks. And that’s not my sister. That’s my girlfriend,” Bellamy says with a neutral face and a small smile as he hands the papers back to Roma. “Thanks again for everything.”

“Right. Of course, you’re welcome, Detective,” Roma shuffles the papers and heads out of the room not before accidentally walking into Clarke, who is biting her lip so hard to keep herself from laughing even before Roma walked into her.

“You’re an ass,” Clarke laughs as soon as Roma’s out of the room.

“You didn’t deny it,” Bellamy sends her a smirk and a raised eyebrow. Behind her, Miller is silently laughing.

“Whatever,” Clarke rolls her eyes. “You should get going if you want to beat Octavia home. Her last class should be getting out soon.”

“Doesn’t she have a shift tonight?” Bellamy slowly stands after pulling shoes on.

“No. I texted her about an hour ago and told her to take the night off. Raven’s the only one with an appointment tonight, so I’ll man the counter.”

“You didn’t have to do that. Octavia doesn’t need special treatment or anything,” Bellamy immediately gets defensive. Octavia likes her job and she’s good at it according to Lincoln (much better than Jasper apparently – so the bar is low), but she doesn’t need special treatment. 

“Her brother is in the hospital. Or was technically. That is firmly categorized under family emergencies which are justified reasons for not making it to work,” Clarke places her hands on her hips and Bellamy can tell she’s about to argue with him and just as he’s opening his mouth to respond back, she cuts him off. “Bellamy, I’m the boss and I told her to take the night off. She’s not going to lose her job and if she wants to, she can make the hours up later. It’s not a big deal. She’s working there more than Jasper is now and she’s covered for him more times than I can remember. So she can take a night off to spend it with her brother. And don’t argue with me.”

Miller is looking around the room trying to ignore the two of them so Bellamy decides to let her win this one with a small salute and a “Yes ma’am” which get’s him an eye roll.

Bellamy and Miller say goodbye to Clarke in the parking lot. She’s leaves for TonDC and they head back to the Blakes’ apartment. Octavia gets there just a few minutes after them and spends the rest of the night yelling at Miller (until he slinks away) for not calling her sooner and hovering around Bellamy making sure he’s taking his pain killers and eating enough and has all his favorite history books or movies within reach because she may have tonight off from work, but he’s not letting her miss class to take care of him.

* * *

_**v.** _

As Bellamy is healing, he gets occasional texts from Clarke asking how he’s doing and she keeps sending home baked goods with Octavia and sometimes she sends a casserole or lasagna, but after they tried the first one, they just trash it and send the dish back a few days later. He even gets one text from Raven (well past two in the morning) asking when he’s ready for sexual activity because Clarke needs to get laid. He finds it the next morning and assumes they were out drinking and decides not to respond to it and try not to think about it (which means it’s all he’s thinking about).

Wick and Miller drop by after a few days and they spend most of the night drinking beers (except Bellamy because Octavia is home and Clarke said he can’t drink on pain meds and Octavia is listening to everything Clarke says at this point). Bellamy learns that Miller finally grew a pair of balls and asked Monty out on a date. When Bellamy tries to get a round of shots to celebrate, Octavia appears (literally out of no where) and hides all the hard liquor and tells the other two that if they let her brother drink, she’s going to cut off their man parts and Miller laughs at her before going quiet and Wick slowly crosses his legs and turns his body away from Octavia who just glares at them both. But as she’s walking out of the room, she stops and sticks her head back in and congratulates Miller on “manning up” and tells Wick to stop hiding his balls and ask Raven out already. This distracts the other two enough to ask Wick what she’s talking about and the man is blushing (literally blushing) and says that they may have hooked up a few times and leaves the rest vague. Bellamy and Miller just laugh at him and Bellamy is just thankful that no one mentions Clarke.

It’s two weeks after he’s released from the hospital that he sees Clarke again. He’s spent the better part of the last two weeks holed up in the apartment with Octavia or Miller and Wick checking up on him. He finally convinced Octavia to go out on a date with Lincoln and stop worrying about him. He knows Miller is out with Monty and Wick is working at the bar so neither will stop by to torment him and he’s ready to enjoy a quiet night alone when he hears a knock on the door.

Bellamy gets up from the couch where he was just about to get caught up on _Game of Thrones_ , which Octavia refuses to allow him to watch because she says its misogynistic and portrays women as weak (which he’s never understood since two of the female leads are literally queens and one is the mother of dragons and leads entire armies, but he doesn’t argue with her when she’s minoring in Women’s Studies).

“Wow, you’re ripe,” Clarke grimaces as he opens the door.

“Hello to you too, princess,” Bellamy rolls his eyes and begins walking back towards the couch. “It’s not the easiest thing in the world to shower with fractured ribs.”

“Do you need help?” Bellamy spins around so fast he winces at the movement and catches Clarke closing the door and rolling her eyes at him. “Relax. I assume you’re not willing to ask Octavia for help and I don’t know how close you are with Miller or Wick.”

“And we’re closer than I am with my two friends?”

“Well, one, I thought we we’re friends too, guess not. And two, we are apparently dating, so there’s that,” Clarke is carrying a six-pack of beer and a pizza box.

“What?” Bellamy tries to cross his arms and look intimidating, but it mostly just hurts so he settles with leaving his hands by his side.

“You told that nurse the day you got discharged,” Clarke is rummaging through his kitchen drawers for something.

“And you’re still complaining about this?”

“No,” Clarke shoots him an annoyed look. “But add that with the fact that you didn’t deny we were dating when talking to my mom and the hospital rumor mill decided we were dating. So thanks for that. I got a twenty minute lecture on the dangers of dating a cop,” Clarke gives up her hunt for whatever she was looking for and grabs two beers before crossing the room to stand in front of him. She grabs part of his shirt and uses it to twist off the caps of the two beer bottles (and he doesn’t think fast enough to knock her hands away before she finishes) and hands him one. “And that was after I told her we weren’t dating.”

“Your mom called you?” Bellamy takes the bottle and takes a small sip before sitting on the couch and motioning for her to sit down too.

Clarke sits on the other end of the couch and takes a long swig from her beer and nods her head, “And I guess I have you to thank for that.”

“Listen, I wasn’t trying to get involved in your business, but she asked about you and I told her if she wanted to know, she should ask you. So no, I didn’t deny that we were dating because I didn’t say anything when she asked.”

“I’m not mad at you. It’s her I’m mad at because it’s the first time she’s directly talked to me in over five years and she calls to lecture me about my dating choices. This coming from a woman who was married to a criminal defense lawyer who was killed by one of his clients and is now apparently engaged to a federal agent,” Clarke rolls her eyes and tucks her feet under her and turns to face him directly. “Sorry. That was way too much information. She just called like an hour ago and annoyed me.”

“It’s okay,” Bellamy pauses before taking another sip of the beer. “We are friends, just so you know.”

Clarke smile could probably light up a room or maybe it’s just him, “Yeah, I know, dork.”

Bellamy rolls his eyes and takes another swig of the beer, “Not that I’m complaining, but according to Octavia who listened to you, I’m not suppose to be drinking this while on pain meds.”

“It hasn’t killed you yet. And don’t lie. I know you’ve been drinking when Octavia isn’t around to supervise. Just ask Wick.”

“You talked to Wick?”

“Yeah, yesterday when he came to pick Raven up after she finished her last appointment. They had their first official date, which came after weeks of ‘sneaking around’. Neither one of them is very quiet – not on the way in or out of Raven’s bedroom and definitely not _in_ Raven’s bedroom.”

Bellamy laughs and spits his beer out and tries to clean it off his chin before she notices, but fails when she hands him a tissue from the box next to the couch, “Way to go Wick. He finally asked her out.”

“Yes. And who do I have to thank for that?” Clarke raises an eyebrow at him.

“Well, it depends. Is it a good thing or a bad thing?”

Clarke grins and shakes her head, “Depends. If they start spending the nights at Wick’s place, then I’ll kiss whoever accomplished that.”

Bellamy grins at her, “Well, that can be arranged, princess.”

Clarke raises an eyebrow at him and takes a sip of her beer without breaking eye contact, “Is there something you have to say, Detective Blake?”

“Not much. Just that there was a certain text message that was sent to me from Raven,” Bellamy shrugs and pulls on his sweatpants to adjust them.

“And what text message is that?”

“I’d rather not say,” but when he glances up Clarke has already crossed the room and somehow broken through his passcode and is scrolling through his messages. Bellamy watches as she reads the message from Raven and a shy smile crosses her face.

Without looking up from the phone she asks, “How come you didn’t answer?” When he doesn’t respond, she looks up and grins at him.

“Didn’t seem appropriate.”

“And why is that?”

“I assumed she was drunk.”

“Raven doesn’t really get drunk. I, on the other hand, do,” Clarke crosses the room again to sit on the couch.

Bellamy smirks, “And what does that have to do with anything?”

Clarke shrugs a shoulder and takes a sip of her beer, “I may have been drunk the night she sent that text.”

Bellamy decides to raise an eyebrow in return, “Go on.”

Clarke laughs and shakes her head, “Go on how?”

“I’m assuming there’s more to that confession. Something that brings us back to the text I received.”

Clarke looks down at her jeans and starts to pick at the hole in the knee of her jeans. Bellamy leans towards her and takes her small hand in his to stop her and when she looks up at him, he gives her a small smile, “You don’t have to tell me. If you were drunk it was mostly like untrue.”

“Isn’t it the opposite? Drunk words are spoken from a sober heart or in this case – libido,” Clarke rolls her eyes, but her voice comes out quietly.

Bellamy grins and runs his thumb over the knuckles on her hand, “What about medically induced dreams?”

Clarke narrows her eyes at him, “What?”

“If your drunken words were the same as some dreams I’ve had while on pain killers, well then they don’t really count, do they?”

Clarke slides closer to him on the couch and he didn’t realize that he slid closer to her when he took her hand, “Not unless you don’t want them to.”

Bellamy’s eyes flicker down to her lips when she licks them and he groans, “Princess, you’re killing me here.”

“Really? How’s that?”

“Well, Raven wasn’t _wrong_ when she asked if I was cleared,” Bellamy leans his head back against the couch to avoid looking at her.

He jumps when he feels Clarke’s lips near his ear, “So I guess Raven wasn’t lying about anything in that text?”

Bellamy keeps his head against the couch, but turns to look at her, “No, I guess she wasn’t.”

Clarke smiles and sits so her back is against the back of the couch again and leans back copying his position, but with her shoulder touching his. After a minute of watching her, Bellamy turns to face the blank TV screen like she is.

“We can wait,” Clarke says quietly.

“What?”

“I like you,” Clarke turns to him with a small smile. “This is me asking you out when you’re all better. In case you got confused from the pain killers.”

Bellamy grinned, “We don’t have to wait until I’m all better to go on a date, princess.”

“Are you asking me out then?”

Bellamy rolls his eyes, “ _You_ asked _me_ out. This is me just telling you we can go on a date while I have fractured ribs.”

Clarke laughs, “No, we can’t because you’ll be miserable and in pain the whole time.”

“This could be a date?” Bellamy takes her hand and interlocks their fingers.

“Me showing up uninvited is a date?”

“You brought pizza and beer. That’s like my perfect date right there.”

Clarke laughs and leans her head against his shoulder.

“Besides,” Bellamy rests his cheek against her hair. “If we wait for a first date, we have to wait even longer to have sex.”

Clarke laughs and would have probably elbowed him in the ribs, but she seemed to remember at the last minute and caught herself, “You’re ridiculous.”

She tries to argue with him throughout the night that it’s not a date, but eventually she falls asleep on his shoulder and he kisses her hair and whispers, “It’s a date.”

He almost falls asleep too, but he hears her softly say, “Best date.”

Octavia finds them both asleep with _Game of Thrones_ playing still and smiles on their faces (yes, she took a picture and sent it to everyone).

* * *

**_vi._ **

A few weeks later, Dr. Griffin (he can’t think of her as Clarke’s mom for this checkup) finally clears Bellamy to return to normal activities. His first stop is to head back to work and give the all clear to his captain, who tells him to report back to work Monday morning and takes him off desk duty.

He knows TonDC is closed earlier today than normal because Wick took Raven out of town for the weekend (which was oddly fast for the two with commitment phobias, but he’s not complaining). Octavia and Lincoln are having a date night to celebrate Lincoln’s birthday (after the girls threw him an epic surprise party). So that just leaves him and Clarke and she told him to come straight up to her apartment above TonDC because she closed shop early.

It doesn’t take long for the two of them to be naked by the time he gets to her door and shows him the note from her mother (yes, she demanded he get a doctor’s note and yes, it was weird to get permission to sleep with his doctor’s daughter – thankfully, Abby believed Clarke when she said they weren’t dating and Clarke hadn’t spoken to her since to correct that information).

They’re laying in her bed while the sun is setting (it’s too early and they were too excited to wait, but Bellamy knows he’s going to spend the rest of the night wrapped up in her) and he finally gets a good look at all her tattoos (which turns out to be a bigger turn on then he thought before and it’s making him reconsider Lincoln’s offer).

Clarke’s head is laying against his chest and he has one arm wrapped around her waist and the other tracing her various tattoos from the rose on her shoulder to the phoenix on her thigh to the words written across her ribcage and all the smaller ones in between.

“What are you thinking?” Clarke asks quietly.

“Just admiring your handy work. All of these your designs?”

“Some. Others I tweaked from something I found online or saw somewhere. A few are Lincoln’s or Raven’s.”

“Which one is your favorite?”

“They all are or else I wouldn’t have gotten them to begin with,” Clarke pauses and rests her chin on his chest to look up at him. “Do you have a favorite?” Her grin is mischievous, but he can see the self-doubt in her eyes.

“Honestly, I think they’re all incredibly sexy. Which is surprising, I never really liked tattoos on girls, but you – I really like them on you.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I know you would never put something on your body unless it was important or meant something to you. So they’re not just there to make up for something, but add more to you,” Bellamy tucks a piece of hair behind her ear. “I’d think you were beautiful even without them anyway.”

Clarke blushes and smiles at him before leaning up to kiss him on the  lips, “I lied. I do have a favorite. I always get offended when people assume I’ve made a mistake getting them and only like one over the others.”

Clarke sits up and shows him the inscription on her ribcage and Bellamy leans closer to read the script: “If love could find a way to heaven and memories formed into steps, I would climb them and bring you back.”

Bellamy lightly traces over the ink and watches as goose bumps follow his finger.

“I got this after my dad died. It was one of my first tattoos and sort of got be hooked on them. He’s the only one, besides Lincoln, who supported me in choosing art over medicine and he died believing in me. He left me a large trust fund and a letter telling me to follow my dreams. I used part of the money to pay off college and open TonDC,” Clarke grasped his fingers with hers and pulled them away.

“It’s beautiful, Clarke.”

He looked up to meet her shy smile and he leaned forward and kissed her.

“He would have liked you. Besides the whole cop thing,” Clarke grinned at him. “Other than that, he would have really liked you.”

“I hope so because I think I really like his daughter and he has some big shoes to follow, but I’m willing to take care of her for him,” Bellamy smiles back at her and tears form in her eyes.

“Good because I really like you too.”

Bellamy got his first tattoo a few weeks later. Lincoln did the actual tattoos, but Clarke designed them. On his bicep was a tattoo with roses and a pocket watch. The pocket watch had the time of his mother’s death with the date in Roman numerals. Above and below the tattoo were the words “Inhale the future” and “Exhale the past.” In the bottom right corner, next to the Roman numerals was heart made out of his and Octavia’s thumb prints. On his other bicep was a lion wearing a crown, which Clarke also drew, but Bellamy had Lincoln adjust it without her knowing and was happy with Lincoln’s version. Hidden within the lion’s mane was a smaller female lion wearing a more feminine crown and the swirls of the mane Lincoln had written: “Every King needs a Queen.” Lincoln’s adjustments weren’t things you saw on first look, they only became obvious when you looked closer or when they were pointed out to you. Years later after Clarke and he got married, he added their wedding date (also in Roman numerals).

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!
> 
> (PS. I hope it doesn't seem to rushed. I was trying to keep it between 5k and 10k words.)


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